Letters of Franklin K. Lane eBook

We regard ourselves as very lucky in the men we have
in the foreign posts, notwithstanding the attacks
made upon us by your press. ...

I wish you would convey my hearty respects to His
Excellency, the Ambassador, and to your wife, of whose
return to health I am delighted to hear. Cordially
yours,

LANE

TO EDWARD J. WHEELER

CURRENT OPINION

Washington, March 4, 1915

DearMr. Wheeler,—­I am extremely
obliged to you for your appreciative letter regarding
my speech, [Footnote: On the American Pioneer.]
but don’t publish it in the Poetry Department
or you will absolutely ruin my reputation as a hard
working official. No man in American politics
can survive the reputation of being a poet. It
is as bad as having a fine tenor voice, or knowing
the difference between a Murillo and a Turner.
The only reason I am forgiven for being occasionally
flowery of speech is that I have been put down as
having been one of those literary fellows in the past.
Cordially yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS

ROME, ITALY

Washington, March 13, 1915

MydearJohn,—­I have received
three letters from you within the last two weeks,
greatly to my joy. Your first and longest letter,
but not a word too long, I thought so very good that
I had it duplicated on the typewriter and sent a copy
to each member of the Cabinet, excepting Bryan, whom
you refer to in not too complimentary a manner.
On the same day that I received this letter I received
one from Pfeiffer, presenting the American merchants’
point of view, who desire to get goods from Germany,
a copy of which I inclose. So I put your letter
and his together, and told them all who you both are.
Thus, old man, you have become a factor in the determination
of international policy. Several members of the
Cabinet have spoken with the warmest admiration of
your letter, one scurrilous individual remarking that
he was astonished to learn that I had such a learned
literary gent as an intimate friend.

We are just at present amused over the coming into
port of the German converted cruiser Eitel, with the
captain and the crew of the American bark, William
P. Frye, on board. The calm gall of the thing
really appeals to the American sense of humor.
Here is a German captain, who captured a becalmed
sailing ship, loaded with wheat, and blows her up;
sails through fifteen thousand miles of sea, in danger
every day of being sunk by an English cruiser, and
then calmly comes in to an American port for coal and
repairs. The cheek of the thing is so monumental
as to fairly captivate the American mind. What
we shall do with him, of course, is a very considerable